We were all stunned and saddened by the news of the horrific shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando. Over 50 people have lost their lives. We are discovering more about the shooter and the events surrounding the attack as the stories keep coming in.
Omar Mateen, the shooter, had scouted out another place for an attack just last week. He and his wife, Noor Zahi Salman, went to Walt Disney World. The four big parks have security and bag checks. However, the couple went to Downtown Disney, recently renamed Disney Springs, and the security there was more lax.
There are metal detectors and random screenings at the other parks: Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, Animal Kingdom, and Epcot. Representatives from Walt Disney World did not respond to requests for comments.
A federal official told PEOPLE magazine:
“Agents in Afghanistan are looking at the shooter’s connections there. He has family there. This is not to say his family is connected to the shootings. This is the normal course of an investigation like this. We ask questions.”
Somehow, Mateen was able to purchase an assault rifle just a week before the attack. You would think that would convince people to step up on passing gun control measures, but it didn’t. One GOP lawmaker says that stopping terrorists from getting guns wouldn’t solve anything.
Obama said that we don’t need to politicize this, though:
“I was sad to hear about the terrorist attacks in Orlando, on American soil. This and other attacks we have seen, prove that we do not have the luxury of debating the political correctness of ‘radical Islam.’ We need to focus on these and other terrorists and do whatever it takes to identify and hunt down those who would do us harm.”
We need to be concerned with helping the victims and their families.
https://youtu.be/N2Uy63gk0rA
Featured image via YouTube screengrab.
